Seizing for life boat covers



Nov. 5, 1957 P. o. LITSHEIM SEIZING FOR LIFE BOAT COVERS Filed March 17, 1952 I INVENTOR imamwm m ATTORNEYS United States Patent SEIZlNG FOR LIFE BOAT COVERS Peder Olav Litsheim, Krokstadelven, Norway ApplicationMarch 17, 1952, Serial No. 276,995

1 Claim. (Cl. 9-1) The present invention relates to such seizings as are used for the lashing of covers on life boats and the like, and the object of the invention is to provide a seizing of such construction as to avoid the repeated slackening and tightening usually required by the use of the common seizings made of hemp rope due to the variations in length of such rope caused by the varying humidity content of the rope.

According to the invention, the seizing comprises, in addition, to the lengths of ordinary hemp or other rope, a portion which is provided with such elastic properties in the direction of length of the seizing that the total length of the seizing and the lashing force of the same upon the cover remain substantially constant independent of the state of humidity of the remaining portions of the seizing.

The elastic portion of the seizing may be made in the form of a helical spring, one or more parallelly disposed rubber strings, a helical spring embedded in rubber or in any other elastic material which might prove suitable un-- der the conditions by which the particular seizing is to be used. Hereby special care should be taken to avoid corrosion of the elastic member in salt sea air, and the said member must not give rise to wear or abrasion of the part or parts of the life boat or the like contacted by the seizing.

It may also be found convenient to split the elastic member into two separate portions, so as to enable an arrangement of the seizing with one elastic portion to either side of the place of contact between the seizing and the life boat.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure l is a diagrammatic side view of a part of a life boat provided with a cover seizing according to the invention, Figure 2 is a transverse cross-section taken along line 2/2 of Figure 1, while the Figures 3 and 4 illustrate two dilferent embodiments of the seizing.

In the drawing, 1 is the life boat proper, 2 the keel of the same and 3 the cover which may be an ordinary tarpaulin cover. The cover 3 is in the usual manner provided with flaps 4 with eyelets 4' for the purpose of "ice securing the end of the seizing 5. The life boat and the cover of the same may be of any form commonly used for life saving purposes on board seagoing vessels.

According to the invention, and as shown in Figure 3, the seizing comprises two lengths 5' of ordinary hemp rope interconnected by means of a member 6 made of such material as to provide the member with an elasticity in the direction of length of the member adapted to meet with the requirement specified above. Thus, the member 6 may be in the form of a solid rubber piece or of a plurality of parallelly disposed or twisted rubber strings. As can be seen from the drawings, the thickness of member 6, i. e., its dimension perpendicular to the plane of the keel, is substantially less than this width, i. e., its dimension longitudinally of the boat, which is to say that member 6 is substantially fiat. As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the member 6 is preferably so situated in the seizing 5 as to be adapted to extend across the keel 2 and upwardly to either side of the same, and is at the ends provided with suitable securing means such as eyelets 7 for the securingof the rope parts 5.

As shown in Figure 4 the elastic member may be made in the form of two separate helical springs 8 interconnected by means of a member 9, which may be made of rubber like the member 6 shown in Figure 2 or of hemp rope like the parts 5. In this case, the member 9 is to be positioned in contact with the keel 2. The springs 8 should preferably be made of non-corrosive material, protected by means of an anticorrosive coating or embedded in rubber. I

I claim:

In combination, a boat having a keel member; a protective cover for the boat; and a seizing securing the cover to the boat when exposed to the atmosphere, said seizing including two lengths of rope, each of said lengths of rope being secured at one end thereof to said cover, and a member formed of elastic material, which member is secured to the other ends of said lengths of rope to interconnect the same, said member being elongated in the direction of the length of the seizing and substantially flat in a direction transverse thereto and being seated against the keel of the boat with the flat dimension being generally parallel to the plane of the keel and the portions of the bottom of the boat adjacent thereto. 

